The Miss World

The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951.[1][2] Since his death in 2000, Morley's wife, Julia Morley, co-chairs the pageant.[3]

Alongside its rival Miss Universe and Miss Earth contests, this pageant is one of the most publicised beauty contests in the world.[4][5][6]

The winner spends a year travelling to represent the Miss World Organization and its various causes.[7] Traditionally, Miss World lives in London during her reign. The current Miss World is Alexandria Mills of United States.Contents

History

Miss World started as the Festival Bikini Contest, in honour of the recently introduced swim wear of the time, but was called "Miss World" by the media. It was originally planned as a one-off event. Upon learning about the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, Morley decided to make the pageant an annual event.[8][9]

Opposition to the wearing of bikinis led to their replacement with more modest swim wear after the first contest. In 1959, the BBC started broadcasting the competition. The pageant's popularity grew with the advent of television. During the 1960s and 1970s, Miss World would normally be the highest rated programme of the year on British television, usually pulling in around 30 million viewers.

In the 1980s, the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan Beauty With a Purpose, with added tests of intelligence and personality.[10] However, the competition has been seen as old-fashioned and rather politically incorrect in its native Britain. It was during the 80s that the company was owned by Transworld Communications, albeit for a short time. Despite the global appeal, the show was not broadcast on any major terrestrial British TV network for several years, until Channel 5 aired it in 1998.[11][12]

21st century

Eric Morley died as the pageant entered the new century. His wife, Julia, succeeded as chairwoman of the Miss World Organization.[13]

The century saw its first black African winner, Agbani Darego, in 2001. As part of its marketing strategy, Miss World came up with a "You Decide" television special during that edition, featuring the delegates behind the scenes and on the beach, and allowing viewers to either phone in or vote online for their favorites. It also sells its Talent, Beach Beauty and Sports events as television specials to broadcasters.[14]

In 2002 the pageant was slated for choosing Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria to host its final. This choice was controversial, as a northern Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, was awaiting death by stoning for adultery under Sharia law there, but Miss World chose to use the publicity surrounding its presence to bring greater global awareness and action to Amina's plight (see Controversies section).[15][16]

Miss World Organization

The Miss World Organization owns and manages the annual Miss World Finals, a competition that has grown into one of the World’s biggest.[17] Since its launch in 1951, the Miss World Organization has raised more than £250 million for children’s charities.[18] Miss World is franchised in more than 100 countries.[19][20] Miss World, Limited is a privately held firm, and thus figures for its earnings, expenses and charitable contributions are not publicly available.

Aside from raising millions of pounds for charities around the globe under the banner of its 'Beauty with a Purpose' program, Miss World is also credited with directly influencing a dramatic increase in tourism in Sanya, China, host city of the Miss World finals in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2010.[21]

The pageant

In the year preceding the global finals, each delegate must win her national title or a specially designated Miss World national preliminary. Miss World's national preliminaries are conducted by their licence-holders, who hold the franchise to use the "Miss World" name in their country. The annual final is typically a month long event, with several preliminary galas, dinners, balls and activities, culminating in a globally telecast final show in which the field is narrowed to between 15-20 delegates.

Awards

See also: Miss World Special Awards

Venezuela has won the Miss Photogenic award four times:(1984, 1990, 1995, 1996).

Four Miss World winners were awarded Miss Photogenic: Astrid Carolina Herrera (Venezuela, 1984), Aishwarya Rai (India, 1994), Jacqueline Aguilera (Venezuela, 1995) and Diana Hayden (India, 1997).

Fast track awards

Since 2003 Miss World pageant also features Fast Track events during the preliminary round. The winners of Fast Track events are automatically qualified to enter the final round. Fast Track events which have been used since 2003 are:

Beach Beauty (2003-presen)t

Miss Talent (2003-present)

Miss Sports (2003-present)

Beauty With A Purpose (2005-present)

Top Model (2004, 2007-present)

People's Choice (2003)

Personality (2003)

Contestant's Choice (2004)

Two Miss World winners were awarded Miss World Beach Beauty: Rosanna Davison (Ireland, 2003), Kaiane Aldorino (Gibraltar, 2009).

Two titleholders have also won Miss World Top Model: Zhang Zilin (China, 2007), Ksenia Sukhinova (Russia, 2008) .

Winners

Kiki Håkansson of Sweden, Miss World 1951 reigned for the longest period in Miss World history: 475 days (almost 16 months) from the time she was crowned on 29 July, 1951 in London, UK.[22][23]

Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir of Iceland, Miss World 2005 reigned for the shortest period in Miss World history: for just 294 days (less than 10 months) by the time she crowned Taťána Kuchařová of the Czech Republic on 30 September , 2006.[24][25]

There were three times back to back victories in Miss World history:

May Louise Flodin of Sweden, was crowned Miss World 1952 by Miss World 1951 Kicki Håkansson of Sweden.

Lesley Langley of United Kingdom, was crowned Miss World 1965 by Miss World 1964 Ann Sidney of United Kingdom.

Priyanka Chopra of India, was crowned Miss World 2000 by Miss World 1999 Yukta Mookhey of India.

The longest interval between title wins belongs to Peru; Madeline Hartog-Bel won the title in 1967 and, 37 years later, María Julia Mantilla became the second recipient from Peru.

The first black African to win Miss World was Agbani Darego of Nigeria, crowned in 2001 at Sun City, South Africa.

The first East Asian to win Miss World was Zhang Zilin of China, crowned in 2007 in Sanya, China.

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Pageant controversies

The Miss World pageant has been the target of many controversies since its inception.

In 1970, feminist protesters threw flour bombs during the live event at London's Royal Albert Hall, momentarily scaring the host, Bob Hope.[26][27]

In 1973, Marjorie Wallace, the first American to win the title was forced to relinquish the title 104 days into her reign. Pageant officials stated that Ms. Wallace "had failed to fulfill the basic requirements of the job." The responsibilities and duties not the title have been offered to the 1st runner-up and was turned down by Evangeline Pascual of the Philippines.

The 1974 winner Helen Morgan representing the United Kingdom was forced to resign four days later after it was discovered she was a unmarried mother.[28]

In 1976, several countries went on a boycott, because the pageant included both a Caucasian and African representative for South Africa.[29] South Africa competed for the last time in 1977, before it was welcomed back in 1991 as that policy disintegrated.[30]

The 1980 winner Gabriella Brum of Germany resigned one day after winning, initially claiming her boyfriend disapproved. A few days later it emerged that she had been forced to resign after it was discovered that she posed naked for a magazine.[31]

In 1996, wide-scale protests took place in Bangalore, India over the hosting of the beauty contest. The swimsuit shootings were moved to Seychelles, and heavy security was placed. Despite the chaos, the pageant's live telecast went on smoothly.[32][33][34]

Just days after her 1998 crowning, Israel's Linor Abargil revealed that she had been raped only two months before the pageant. The man who raped her was later convicted.[35]

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The 2002 Nigeria contest

Main article: Miss_World_2002

In the year leading up the finals in Nigeria, several European title holders lobbied their governments and the EU parliament to support Amina's cause.[36][37] A number of contestants followed the lead of Kathrine Sørland of Norway in boycotting the contest (despite the controversy Sørland would go on to become a semifinalist in both the Miss World and Miss Universe contest), while others such as Costa Rica were instructed by their national governments and parliaments not to attend the contest. Among the other boycotting nations were Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Panama, Belgium and Kenya. There was further controversy over the possibly suspended participation of France and South Africa, which may or may not have been due to the boycott.[38] For her part, Lawal asked that contestants not suspend their participation in the contest, saying that it was for the good of her country and that they could, as the representative of Sweden had earlier remarked, make a much stronger case for her on the ground in Nigeria.[39]

Despite the increasing international profile the boycott was garnering in the world press, the contest went ahead in Nigeria after being rescheduled to avoid taking place during Ramadan, with many prominent nations sending delegates. Osmel Sousa of Venezuela, one of the world's most influential national directors, famously said "there is no question about it (the participation of Miss Venezuela in the contest). "The trouble did not end there, however. A ThisDay (Lagos, Nigeria) newspaper editorial suggesting that Muhammad, would probably have chosen one of his wives from among the contestants had he been alive to see it, resulted in inter-religious riots that started on November 22 in which over 200 people were killed in the city of Kaduna, along with many houses of worship being burned by religious zealots.[40] Because of these riots, the 2002 pageant was moved to London, following widely circulated reports that the representatives of Canada and Korea had withdrawn from the contest and returned to their respective countries out of safety concerns. A fatwa urging the beheading of the woman who wrote the offending words, Isioma Daniel, was issued in Nigeria, but was declared null and void by the relevant Saudi Arabian authorities.[41][42][43][44] Upon the pageant's return to England, many of the boycotting contestants chose to attend, including Miss Norway, Kathrine Sørland, who was ironically tipped in the last few days as the number one favorite for the crown she had previously boycotted

The eventual winner of the pageant was Azra Akın of Turkey, the first predominantly Muslim country to hold the title since Egypt in 1954